


Mazes

by Cosmic_Biscuit



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Set during Mid-season time skip, Vision Problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-11 23:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/484114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Biscuit/pseuds/Cosmic_Biscuit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's always been easy for him to play off his poor eyesight before, but that was before someone got the idea to use it against him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When he opened his eyes, it was to shades of brown and grey. Wincing slightly, he made himself sit up, and found nothing more than the same blurred colors in different patterns all around. It only took a few more seconds of regaining sensory perception and shaking the metaphorical cobwebs out of his head to figure out why.

His outer armor was gone.

He bit his lip against the instinctive surge of fear, the revulsion that someone had been able to strip him of it while he'd been unconscious, willing it all back down. So he was helmetless. He hadn’t activated his powers in what he could remember of the fight before, so maybe-

Pain lanced through the back of his skull when he reached for his Hundred Power, and he hunched over on the floor, fighting back a flood of nausea. When he’d regained the ability to move without feeling the need to vomit all over the cold concrete under him, he reached up and found something had been clamped snugly around his neck in place of the band for his helmet.

Now he was beginning to panic a little.

He rested his forehead on the concrete, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down again. He didn’t dare risk setting off the inhibitor collar -he was sure that was what had been forced on him- again, so when he got up, he was still moving badly impaired. But still, wherever he was, it wasn’t entirely pitch dark, and he managed to rely on color and shadow to guide him to the nearest wall.

Okay. So far, so good.

He followed the wall as far as he could, until he came to what appeared to be a dark stairway. Holding his breath, he carefully felt his way down each stair, hoping he was at least going in a direction that would take get him out of this. On the eleventh, he misjudged the stair and lost his balance, tumbling painfully down the last several to land in a heap on the floor.

For a few seconds, he just laid there, curled on his side, as he tried to fight past the pain and get his wind back, then began carefully feeling the areas that had impacted the worst. Once he’d made sure nothing was broken or sprained, he slowly got back to his feet to find he was now stranded in an even darker hallway than the one he’d come from.

This had been a stupid idea, he thought as a brief flash of despair flickered through his mind. But turning back would just leave him trapped in that room, since he didn't think it had another door . He swallowed thickly, trying to build his resolve back up. He’d just have to keep going.

He’d made it to another doorway when he suddenly heard a distant, creepy little giggle somewhere off to his left in the darkness. “Hello?”

There was no verbal response. Maybe his mind had just been playing tricks on him. That was a good explanation for it. Pushing off the doorway, he continued down the hall until something in his path tripped him. By sheer luck, a blind flail caught a doorknob to let him fall to his knees, saving him from landing on the concrete on his face. After he’d regained his balance, he fumbled a little to find that the thing he’d fallen over was a small box. He started to push it out of his way-

-and it exploded, knocking him back. Dazed and a little worried about what the trap might entail, he huddled against the wall to reorient himself. Just as he'd gotten his breath back, he heard another eerie giggle, this time definitely from the direction of the box's remains.

“Congratulations!” a mechanical voice chirped, and he couldn't see what was there for it to come from. “I wasn’t expecting you to make it this far so quickly with nothing to guide you.”

“What the hell is going on?” he asked in a sharp, cold voice, trying to hide the fear that had begun to swell back up.

“Guess vision loss wasn’t enough of a challenge,” the voice continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “We’ll just have to _up the difficulty level a bit_.”

Smoke poured out of the box, and he recoiled at the strangely sweet odor, recognizing it as what had knocked him out before. Whatever sick game this was, he wasn't about to lose it and a whole lot more, and he flung himself past the box, not caring where he ended up as long as he managed to escape the cloud. He made it several yards before another object in his path sent him sprawling. The pipe that had tripped him spewed another eruption of different-smelling smoke that left his head spinning as he struggled to his feet.

The floor seemed to move under him as he stumbled through the darkness for God only knew how long, and only holding on to the wall guided him through several disorienting turns. He couldn’t tell if the smell of the smoke was just clinging to him or if he was breathing in more of it, panic again clawing its way into his mind as he tried to get away from it. In desperation, he tried a second time to reach for his power, only to drop to the floor to retch as the collar he’d forgotten about in his fear switched on to jolt him again.

Sick, dizzy, and no longer able to see at all, a sudden vicious kick from the darkness caught him entirely off guard and sent him skidding across the floor.

“Don’t know why the old bastard ever bothered with you,” a different, clearly male, voice from the computerized one in the box said from over him, before he was kicked again. “Coulda done better with any of us instead of wasting all his time.”

Who was he talking about, Barnaby wanted to ask, before the mechanical voice interrupted.

“Hey, you know the rules! No interfering until he loses!”

“Shut up, brat!” his attacker snapped before kicking him again for good measure. This time, before he could pull his foot back again, Barnaby managed to grab him by the ankle and shove him away. It wasn’t enough force to hurt, not by a long shot, but it at least overbalanced the jerk enough for him to fall. While the mechanical voice laughed at its companion, he threw himself back into motion, again trying to flee despite having no ability to tell where he was going.

He didn’t make it far.

He made a sharp gasp of pain as something big and heavy, likely the same guy, grabbed him by the neck and smashed him against a wall. In no position to try using a kick to get free, he tried one more time to reach for his power, but nothing came except the same burst of agony up his spine as before. He bit his tongue to bleeding to keep from throwing up or screaming as the hand around his throat tightened at the same time as the jolt, pressing the burning hot collar deep into his skin.

And then suddenly he couldn’t see for an entirely _different_ reason as the entire corridor went white and his attacker dropped him with a howl of pain.

“-nny? Bunny!”

In a blind panic, he lashed out at whatever was trying to grab him then, only to meet solid metal.

“ _Bunny_! Calm down! It’s okay now, I’ve got you!”

The familiar voice right next to his ear finally cut through the terrified haze, and he realized the metal he was trapped in was his partner’s armored hold. “ _Kotetsu?_ ” he asked, the name almost coming out on a sob. In some distant part of his mind, he registered that the light might have been cameras and using his partner’s real name might not have been the brightest idea… but that part of his mind could kindly go to hell right now, overwhelmed by a sudden flood of a dozen different emotions at once. He suddenly had the urge to throw up again from all the sensory overload.

“Shh. Deep breaths.” A gauntleted hand covered his eyes, protecting him from the light and all the strain he’d been under trying to see in the dark, and he made a weak noise in response, still trying to keep himself from reflexively fighting the embrace. “Keep your eyes closed for now, okay? It’ll hurt a lot less.”

He nodded and did as told,  and even being scooped up in a princess hold couldn’t embarrass him then.

“Just hang on. Kid’s keeping your new friend busy and the others are canvassing the place looking for anyone else involved, so I’m gonna get you out of here and to the medics.”

Oh. That explained the bright light, then. As Kotetsu carried him, he was dimly aware that they were going up. He must have mentioned it out loud, because the older hero replied “This place is like a goddamn maze. If one of them hadn’t gone after you, it might have taken a whole lot longer to find you.” Then, more quietly. “It’s been three days.”

He didn’t feel hungry or thirsty at all. Just sort of numb from the panic adrenaline fading. Surely he hadn’t been wandering around lost in those hallways _that_ long...

 

_Had_ he?

 

He couldn’t tell.

He couldn’t tell much of anything, really, at that point. Even when he tried opening his eyes again and they’d adjusted to the changes of light, all he could see was white and green and none of it distinct, and more colored blurs around them as paramedics swooped in and took him away from his partner. Suddenly frightened again, he groped for the white and green splotch of color even as the medics urged him to hold still and not aggravate his injuries and clucked over his apparent state of dehydration and shock.

“Don’t leave,” he pleaded, unable to make himself care how pathetic he sounded as an oxygen mask was fitted over his nose.

The gauntlet covered his eyes again as the gurney was set up to wheel him out of the building. “I’m right here,” Kotetsu promised, the tension in his voice easing now that they were out of immediate danger. "I'll be right with you the whole way."

Only then did the rigid anxiety he'd carried ever since he'd woken up finally ease, and by the time they reached the hospital, he was nearly asleep. He barely responded when hands gave him a very gentle shake.

"Come on, Mr. Brooks, we need you to stay with us. You can sleep after we're sure that there's no head trauma or narcotic inhalation we should be worrying about."

He wanted to protest -now that his body was finally becoming aware that yes, it _had _actually been three days, all he wanted was food and sleep- but he knew they were right. Thankfully, Kotetsu kept his word, and once his own outer armor had been shed to go with Saito, his partner had stayed by his side for the entire battery of tests, a dark blur against all the white and grey and blue. Kotetsu always did manage to make himself stand out, Barnaby thought rather absurdly at one point as they passed from X-Ray to CT. Maybe the pain medications were getting to him.__

The final tally had been a minor concussion, some rather nasty eyestrain, burns around his throat where the collar had melted through his suit, and three cracked ribs from his fight with his unknown assailant.

"Here."

"Mmh?" Barely still clinging to awareness, Barnaby turned his head to feel something slip onto his nose, and suddenly the world was bright and clear again. "Oh-"

"I know they're just gonna cover your eyes once they put you in a room, but I figured you'd like a few minutes before they do," Kotetsu said with a grin, and this time he could see it. "So when Agnes brought your personals by, I asked her to leave your glasses with me."

He managed a thin, exhausted smile. "Thank you."

Kotetsu nodded and took hold of his hand, and the comfort of the unfamiliar, but welcome, touch and the light, familiar weight of his vision being returned to him lulled him to sleep just a minute later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted with permission of anonymous commissioner, who requested a recovery chapter be added to the original fic.

The first week in the hospital was an especially miserable experience. Hardly allowed to move without the assistance of nurses, he could only lay or sit with his eyes swathed in gauze padding and bandages and his arms littered with IV tubes as the hospital staff tried to alleviate the dehydration and flush out the various gasses he'd inhaled before they could have any further negative effects. 

He felt nauseous and dizzy most of the time that he was awake, and found it hard to concentrate on anything other than the anxious fear that maybe the people who'd kidnapped him out of the fight would come for him again now that he was restrained and vulnerable. Having spent nearly four hours talking to the cops hadn't helped in the _slightest_ in that regard.

The only times he felt comfortable at all were when some of the other heroes were visiting. Though he'd been pretty intimidated by Nathan and Pao-lin at first, they'd proven to make very good company during his stay. Nathan had somehow deduced what sorts of sweet and tart tastes he liked, and always came armed with some new fruit for him to try. Pao-lin had recently become interested in old comic books and would bring some borrowed from a neighbor in her building and read him horror stories and tales of NEXT-Men in her most exaggerated voices until he was sufficiently distracted from his own morose thoughts.

He found that the thing he looked forward to the _most_ , however, was when Kotetsu would come by for dinner. The food wasn't always particularly interesting, usually just whatever was in the cafeteria that looked the most decent that evening, but... just knowing that his partner was still holding true to his promise to stick close made the entire hospital stay a little easier to bear. 

On the ninth day, he finally had shown enough signs of improvement and blood clarity that the doctors had agreed to his plea to be allowed to recover at home.

"However, Mr. Brooks, it is required that you have an escort to help you get reacclimated to your home surroundings in your current state. Mr. Kaburagi has already volunteered, but if you prefer, the hospital can provide-"

"No," Barnaby said quietly. "No, it's fine. I'll go with Kotetsu."

"Very well. We'll call him in to make the final arrangements and help you with your paperwork."

Once the doctor had left, Barnaby settled back against his pillow. He'd suspected that he would have to have a chaperone of some sort until he'd recovered sufficiently, but the fact that Kotetsu had talked to the doctors about it first had come as a surprise. 

He was grateful, though. The thought of having to let a complete stranger in his apartment after what had happened made an uncomfortable cold weight turn over and over in his stomach. At least his partner was someone he could trust.

A nurse came with a bundle of clothing and disconnected the last of the IVs, and Barnaby found that whatever he'd been given wasn't too hard to put on by touch alone. He'd just finished getting dressed and was putting on the slippers the nurse had brought him when there was a light knock. 'Bunny?"

"Come in," Barnaby said, getting to his feet and taking hold of the cane that had been left for him as well. A hand nudged his arm, and he accepted, leaning against his partner. "Are we clear to go?"

"Yep," Kotetsu replied, lightly tapping his arm with a sheaf of copied paperwork. Some part of found it funny that the older man hadn't said one word of complaint about having to fill it out, but he bit his tongue and kept that thought to himself as Kotetsu carefully guided him through the halls, steering him away from this obstacle or that.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Barnaby replied as the elevator doors swished closed, giving them privacy from any staring visitors.

"Smartass. I mean really."

"Sure, I guess."

"The doctors went over pretty much everything that's my part, y'know, the driving to and from the hospital and helping around the apartment and stuff, but they didn't really tell me much about this bit."

Barnaby fought down a shiver when warm fingertips grazed the bandages near his right temple. "Basically, if I had normal eyes, this would all be done with. But the corrosion in my lenses makes me especially photosensitive, so too much light exposure at once could cause permanent damage." Once they'd told him that, he'd felt a bit stupid about having tried to keep his eyes open when he'd first been admitted, even if it had seemed necessary at the time to stay awake. "I'll switch out for less gauze, then just the wraps, then sunglasses, then hopefully, I'll be better."

"So, basically, you're having to do physical therapy for your eyes."

"Something like that."

"Huh." He felt Kotetsu shift, leaning back against the wall of the elevator, and followed suit. "So, how do you deal with it normally? I mean, being in the sunlight or in front of the cameras isn't the same thing as being stuck in the darkness for three days, but I've never even seen you flinch before."

"Practice, mostly. Also, my glasses are light-filtering. That's why they've got that little bit of tint to them. And of course the helmet does its job as well."

"Geez. Sounds like you've found ways to compensate for just about everything."

 _'Everything except having all your little protections stripped from you,'_ a nasty little thought that sounded disturbingly like the little mechanical voice in the darkness piped up in the back of his mind, and Barnaby bit his lip.

Kotetsu shuffled papers a bit, then a hand covered his, warm and reassuring. "Sorry, bad thing to say," Kotetsu apologized, rubbing at his fingers until Barnaby was able to make himself loosen his grip.

"It's fine. I'm just-"

He was saved from having to explain as the elevator opened up into the parking garage. "Looks like we beat the press so far," Kotetsu muttered. "C'mon before some pap gets wise."

Barnaby nodded and let himself be pulled along. 

The trip to his apartment was uneventful, Kotetsu having taken pity on his patience and turned the radio to a quiet public radio channel.  He rested his head against the passenger window facing, letting himself adjust to what very little sunlight made it past his bandages and closed eyelids.

"All right so far?" Kotetsu asked when the car stopped in his building's garage.

"So far," Barnaby murmured, fumbling only a little before he found the door handle. Once he was out, he waited for Kotetsu, accepting the offered arm when it nudged his own. His neighbors, thankfully, knew to mind their own business, so no one bothered them on the way up to his apartment.

Once they'd made it inside, Kotetsu guided him over to the central chair and took his cane before letting him sit. "I've got a little paperwork to finalize at Apollon. They weren't too thrilled about me taking time off to be here for some reason, but I'm using vacation time, so they can deal. Your cane's right here beside you if you need to go anywhere while I'm gone."

"Unnecessary. I'll probably just sleep," Barnaby said, feeling somewhat exhausted now that he was home -safe place-. 

"Still. Just in case," Kotetsu said, and Barnaby felt the handle brush the back of his hand as his partner leaned it against the chair. "I gotta swing by my place real quick to get clothing too, then I'll pick up takeout on the way back, since I don't think either of us is up to messing around in the kitchen. You feel like anything in particular?"

"Not really. On the drive over, I was sort of thinking about that crab and corn chowder we got at that kettle place once, but now I'm not very hungry at all."

"Well, maybe you'll be hungry by the time I get back. I'll get us one of their big giant bowls to split. And some chrysanthemum tea. You liked that when we were there, didn't you?"

"Yes," Barnaby admitted.

"Then definitely some of that. It's good for your eyes, you know."

Barnaby made a little snort, then settled deeper into his chair. "You remember where the spare key is, right?"

"Yep. You sure you'll be okay until I get back?"

"I'll be fine. Get going before they come up with some damage papers for you to deal with."

Kotetsu made a brief noise of displeasure at the mere thought, then Barnaby heard him walking away and the sound of the door opening and closing. Being alone in his empty apartment made him feel strangely cold. He took a deep breath to try and push it aside.

He was home.

He was safe.

He just needed a little sleep to calm down, that was all.

Tilting his head back a little, he took another deep breath and let himself doze off.

 

 

_Darkness surrounded him everywhere, nothing but brick and concrete as far as his hands could feel. Gas hissed behind him, and his head was swimming-_

_He shrieked in pain as something suddenly clamped onto his leg, shredding through suit and skin and muscle. He pitched to the floor, hitting his head on the concrete, but the white spots behind his eyelids from that were nothing compared to the agony lancing through his calf._

_'You lose!' the childish mechanical voice squealed in glee, as Barnaby struggled to rip his leg out of the trap. But fighting it only made the sharp metal teeth dig in deeper, until they scraped sickeningly against bone. He could hear his big assailant coming, could hear the terrifying clang as a pipe was swung against brick in anticipation of his skull being next._

_He had to get out._

_He had to get out before-_

 

 

He jolted with a scream as something grabbed him by the shoulders and, in his desperate flailing to escape, he lost his balance and tumbled off the chair, hitting the floor painfully.

Floor.

It wasn't concrete.

His fingers dug into the carpet as he curled in on himself, struggling against the sudden flaring urge to cry. There were bandages over his eyes, not pitch black tunnels in all directions. He hadn't lost the game. Kotetsu had-

It was then that he finally became aware that the hands on him weren't holding him down, just holding him steady. "I'm okay now," he mumbled as he tried to sit up.

"No, you're not," Kotetsu said, but let him up anyway before pulling him close to begin rubbing his back. "Nightmares about the maze?"

His first instinct was to lie again in some sort of attempt to salvage what very little dignity he had left. Instead, he found himself nodding. Kotetsu just gave him a brief, reassuring squeeze, then pulled away to help him to his feet. 

"Come on, I think the bed will be a little easier to put up with than this creepy room."

Unable to even muster up annoyance at the light jab, Barnaby took the cane that was pressed into his hand and followed the guiding pull.

"What do you sleep in usually?"

"Most of the time, just whatever I crash in."

"Oh. You got any pj pants at least?'

"Third on the left."

Kotetsu fished something out and handed it over, and Barnaby was able to use the cane to guide himself to the bathroom to change. By the time he came back out, he was feeling a little bit better, and he could smell food. Making his way to the bed, he sat down, and Kotetsu pressed a bowl into his hands. He'd been embarrassed the first time he'd had to drink soup this way, but had quickly learned that trying to judge the distance with a spoon was a much bigger pain, so he tipped the rim of the bowl to his mouth just like drinking from a cup.

"Your tea's on the bedside table," Kotetsu said, taking a seat on the other side of the bed.

"Thank you."

They ate in silence, Barnaby finishing off his soup before setting the bowl down to reach for his tea. The terrors of the dream had faded enough that he felt calm again, but now there was something else that was nagging at him. "Kotetsu?"

"Yeah?"

"At the hospital... the doctor told me that you had already requested caretaker status before they ever brought the subject up with me. I was just wondering... why did you do that?"

There was no answer for a long, awkward minute, then he heard a slow, heavy exhale. "Because, to be honest... this whole thing really scared the hell out of me. I mean, there were no ransom demands, no calls, no nothing. We had no idea whether you going missing from that arrest was retaliation for Jake, or what. And you know what they say about the first forty-eight hours being the most important of a kidnapping. By day three, I... I was really starting to worry I wasn't ever gonna see you again. And we don't know if whoever was responsible might make another try. So... um... yeah. I wanted to help so you'd have someone to back you up if they did come back before you were healed. Besides," he added, the grin coming back to his voice. "I promised, remember?"

Barnaby felt a weird sort of mix of guilt and comfort wash over him. On one hand, he was actually kind of touched that his partner had been so worried about him. On the other- "Yeah. I remember. And I'm sorry for sca-"

"Uh-uh." Kotetsu's hand squeezed the one that wasn't holding the tea mug. "Don't even start. None of that was your fault, and you know it."

Barnaby swallowed and just nodded, sipping at the tea to relax himself as Kotetsu went to the bathroom to change. Momentarily lost in his own thoughts, he didn't hear the door open again, and raised his head when he heard the clink of dishes. "Ah?"

"Just gonna wash up and head for the chair. I'll be close enough you can call if you need me."

"Don't do that. Sleep in the chair, I mean. The bed's more than big enough to give us both space, and it wouldn't be fair to make you sleep out there when you're doing all this for me."

"You sure?"

"Yes," he said more decisively than he felt. Aside from the time they'd both passed out on his living room floor, he'd never shared sleeping space with anyone. But he wasn't about to take back the offer, so he snuggled down under the covers while Kotetsu was gone.

After a few minutes, he heard Kotetsu return and the lamp click off. He felt the bed shift as another weight settled down into it. It should have been a nervewracking experience, really, to have someone in his bed.

Instead, he slipped easily into a deep, comfortingly dreamless sleep, lulled by the sound of soft breathing close by.


End file.
